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Deron Williams, left, was ejected with 1 minute 7 seconds left in the game after arguing with the referees.
HOUSTON — There was a point Saturday when Deron Williams's shooting touch was so scorching that his teammates flatly avoided him, the way they might recede from a bowler edging toward a 300 game. As the first quarter ended, and Williams still had not missed, there was a sense he might be on the verge of something spectacular.
Williams and Houston's Jeremy Lin have a history, a seesawing battle of one-upmanship. On Saturday, it may have had a lot to do with Williams's sizzling start. But by the game's end, Lin was being cheered, Williams had been ejected, and the Nets had stalked off with their second lopsided loss in two nights, falling by 119-106 at Toyota Center.
The Nets went from facing one of the league's staunchest defensive teams, the Memphis Grizzlies, to trying to keep up with its fastest, the Rockets, who led the league in possessions per game (100.4) and were third in scoring average (104.1) entering Saturday's game. The end results were largely the same.
Before the game, Coach P. J. Carlesimo indicated that the Nets' success would hinge on their ability to slow the Rockets to a more deliberate pace. Instead, the Nets fell victim to the early defensive sluggishness that cost them in a blowout loss the night before.
"We're just getting annihilated in points in the paint," Carlesimo said. "We need to get some better individual defense, and we certainly need team defense."
On Saturday, there was hardly enough of either. The Rockets outscored the Nets by 60-24 in the paint and by 27-7 in transition.
"We got into an up-tempo game; that's not our style," forward Gerald Wallace said. "We run, but this is just a transition team. That's not the style we wanted to play."
Paced early by Williams, who hit his first seven shots, the Nets were ahead, 29-28, going into the second quarter. Williams either scored or assisted on the Nets' first 22 points.
But he got little support.
Then the Rockets took off, starting the second quarter on a 25-6 run. They got assists on 17 of their first 20 field goals.
"Tonight we were able to go inside, drive inside, get our big men easy buckets," said Lin, who finished with 14 points and 9 assists.
The Nets cut the deficit to 9 with a stronger showing in the third quarter, making five 3-pointers and not committing a turnover. But the Rockets pulled away again in the fourth. Omer Asik, their center, had 20 points and 16 rebounds.
After Memphis's Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph had their way with the Nets' frontcourt on Friday, Saturday's effort did little to ease concerns about the team.
"Maybe we're a step slow," Brook Lopez said. "I don't know if I'm communicating enough, or contesting enough, but we definitely got to change some things and get back to what we were doing."
Williams scored 38 points against Lin and the Knicks last February, less than three weeks after Lin embarrassed the Nets with 25 points off the bench in the precursor to Linsanity. It was clear Williams had not forgotten about either game.
But frustration boiled over late in the fourth, when Williams was ejected for arguing with the official David Jones. Williams finished with 27 points and 11 assists, but he declined to speak with members of the news media after the game.
The Rockets are fighting out of a lengthy mid-month funk, following a stretch in which they had won 10 of 12. Their coach, Kevin McHale, acknowledged that the team was still learning a new system.
"We like the style we play when the ball moves," McHale said before the game. "And we're not very good when it doesn't."
The backcourt of James Harden, named an All-Star last week, and Lin has shown signs of flash, but at times has also fizzled. The Rockets lead the league in transition scoring and possessions per game, but also in turnovers.
"Everybody wants to believe in a microwave society, where everything works in three days," McHale said. "But it takes time."
Carlesimo was reluctant to say that his players were slowed by fatigue in their fourth game in six days. He praised the Rockets' ability to run their offense skillfully.
"It's an extremely good offensive team and it's not an accident the stuff they do," Carlesimo said.
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